About Us

About Kirsty Armstrong, your Occupational Therapist:

I grew up on a rural property near Horsham, Victoria before moving to Albury to complete my Bachelor of Health Science (Occupational Therapy), which I completed in 2006. I then worked in many different rural areas across Victoria to build my clinical skills in inpatient, outpatient and community rehabilitation, paediatrics, hand therapy, palliative care and general community. Throughout these years, I found my niche working in the aged and disability sectors with people of all different abilities. In 2013 I returned to Horsham with my husband where we commenced share farming my family farm.

I have always had a strong drive to help people live their best life and in 2014 this love of supporting my community led me to develop Function Therapy, my private occupational therapy practice. Function Therapy employed Occupational Therapists and other health and disability professionals with the mission of “Enabling participation in everyday tasks”. Through this practice, I supported these clinicians to strengthen individuals' and their support networks' skills and knowledge. We did this by providing individualised and group programs to support participant's goals. 

During this time, I began working exclusively with people with high physical and developmental support needs, by assisting them with complex seating, positioning, care requirements and manual handling. In addition I also conducted Functional and Home and Living assessments for participants on the NDIS. This love for supporting people with severe and profound physical disability, led me to develop Function Lifestyle Day Supports which consists of individualised day programs for people with high support needs, with a strong focus on sensory modulation.

I have the privilege of managing the day programs and thoroughly enjoy watching the participants grow as individuals as they utilise the therapeutic approaches which we have imbedded into the programs. Supporting people with high physical support needs intensified my love of manual handling, which motivated me to develop my manual handling training package, "Moving Focus." Since then, I have developed other training packages including Sensory Processing training and Pressure Care training,  and a new graduate program called, "Best Foot Foward".

After 9 years working with Function Therapy, I decided to move away from group private practice and focus on providing consultative Occupational Therapy supports for participants and organisations in the early years, disability and aged care sectors. I also enjoy providing mentoring and training to other Occupational Therapists, educators and parents.

In my quiet time, I enjoy baking, paper craft, camping and spending time on our farm with our two young children.